


Manipulation of Assumed Reality

by Just_Will



Category: Original Work, W.HER.L (World Hero League)
Genre: Android, Bloodhound - Freeform, Cold Bolt, Crime Fighting, Mind Control, Mind Manipulation, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Psychic Abilities, Pyrex, Pyschic, Torrent - Freeform, Wendigo, ace - Freeform, super hero
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2015-10-30
Packaged: 2018-04-18 09:23:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4700747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_Will/pseuds/Just_Will
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wes doesn't consider himself a hero, nor does he consider himself evil.  He has a power and he uses it often on bad people and he has fun with what he does.  Wes has the power to manipulate the mind and everything it controls, calling it human hacking.  While he should keep a low profile, what with being a wanted man and all, he goes around taking down bad guys under the alias MAR.  He takes down corrupt businesses and such to help support his siblings and while trying to gain a reputation to lure out the man who killed his parents to him.  Wes has a difficult life and having psychic powers that would drive most people insane is just the tip of the ice berg.  Now with various people coming after him for various reasons he has to figure out who he can trust and who can help him so that he can stay alive to keep what remains of his family safe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> An original work and world I made for the National Novel Writing Month of 2013. It always seems like villains get really cool and interesting powers that seem mega overkill and one day I came across an idea of 'why can't a hero have this really cool power?' and thus the hero MAR was born. Something that also bugged me was how all heroes male and female seem to be in good shape, strong, and healthy and so I made MAR scrawny, weak physically, and sort of sick looking. Despite his looks though he's a powerhouse of potential and not someone to underestimate. Now by all means please enjoy his debut here and the introduction of the world of WHERL (pronounced as 'whirl').

 

There are a number of reasons to think that your life sucks. Maybe you were born without legs, maybe you caught a parasite that could only be removed with risky surgery, maybe a freak unicycle accident left you paralyzed in one leg and cost you your curling career. As the quick squeaking of sneakers echoed off the empty halls though, Wes Barker could only think that his life truly sucked as he was being chased by, at the absolute least, two very powerful and high profiled heroes.

As Wes made a sharp turn around another corner he ran into a wall and kicked off it to propel himself faster down another empty hallway. He had been running around up and down stairs trying to find a way out of wherever he was, but for the life of him he couldn’t find any useful information or people to get info from. Keeping up his running pace, Wes thought back towards a few hours ago when everything was normal, or at least what passed for normal for him.

It had been a relatively simple assignment, and the kind that Wes enjoyed immensely as he got to put on a show for more people to watch and for people who wanted to watch. The man he had targeted was some rich trust fund brat who had gone to some fancy Ivy League school and was studying to be a doctor, or an architect, or maybe it was a haberdasher. Wes didn’t care about the man, didn’t care what he wanted to do with his life, because after today his life would be ruined; after all he ruined the life of a 15 year old girl and her family so it was only fair that Wes returned the favor with interest.

As the young man sat down on one of the benches he looked around at those gathered. The prosecutor looked like he was out of his depth and was sweating heavily while the defense looked like they were ready to crack open the champagne. It was a sickening display but as the court was called into session, Wes couldn’t help but smile as a woman came and sat next to him.

The woman smelled of freshly baked bread and soil. Her long brown hair was tied up into a bun and as she sat next to him in her dark green skirt that went down to her knees and her light green blazer covering her white shirt, Wes couldn’t help but chuckle at the show he was about to give her.

“Are you positive this is going to work?” The woman didn’t look at the shaggy brown haired youth beside her as she pulled a basket she had been carrying into her lap.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve done something of this nature, ma’am. This will work, trust me.” He turned his sunken blue eyes up to her with a sparkle of mischief in them. In all honesty this kind of work was easy for him and he’d been doing it for years. All he had to do was be near his targets and he could control their senses. If he could actually make skin contact with them then he could plant suggestions in their minds. It was all a part of his psychic abilities that made him so confident about the trial that was going to end today with justice for the woman beside him.

She was the mother of the victim. The 15 year old girl had been brutally assaulted and raped by the man on trial today. Wes didn’t know the full details of what happened and he didn’t want or need to know in order to know he was guilty. He could hear his thoughts and every smug thing the bastard said made Wes grin more and more for what was to come. After the judge had arrived and called them all to order, things started to go underway and soon it was the defendant’s turn at the stand and the prosecutor was going to question him.

“Here it comes, ma’am. It’ll be over soon.” Wes crossed his bony arms over his equally thin body and closed his eyes to hear the thoughts of the bastards trying to get this man off for such a horrible crime.

<This will be a piece of cake, this loser looks like he just graduated and without the girl to testify against him there’s not much else they can really do.>

‘Of course the girl can’t testify against him, she’s in a coma after she was left for dead after she was shoved down into a ditch like an animal,’ Wes huffed in annoyance and made a note to have some fun with that lawyer later.

“Now, Mr. Krieg can you tell us where you were on the night in question?” The defense was shaky and Wes had to keep from rolling his eyes at the man. He needed to gain some confidence if he was ever going to get anywhere in this field, but the young man shrugged it off as he heard the smug man’s thoughts.

<That’s easy, I was at a party where I have half a dozen people paid to say they saw me out on a yacht.> His thoughts were cocky and full of self assurance but Wes smiled as the man spoke.

“I was with that stupid little whore that couldn’t shut up and let me have my way with her, and after I knocked her out and raped her I threw her in a ditch and drove home to enjoy some brandy.” He smirked at what he said and everyone gasped in shock at his brazen admittance while he suddenly shook his head at realizing what he had just said, “Wait, I didn’t mean to say that!”

No one said anything as he took a deep breath and a sip of water. The man looked on the verge of a panic attack and Wes had to bite back the laugh that was building up in his throat.

“I meant to say that I have paid six people to testify for me that I was at a party on my yacht on the night in question,” he paled again at realizing that he had just further incriminated himself and started to freak out more. Now was the time for the true performance and as Wes pulled out a pair of sunglasses and slipped them on his face he let his power reach out to the man’s mind.

As the judge tried to get the court back under control, the man looked out into the stands and went pale at seeing the young girl sitting in the stands. Pale as a sheet, her hair looked ragged and covered her left eye as the other seemed to stare right through him. She was wearing a hospital gown and pointed at him with weakly, her wrist unable to straighten as she mouthed out a word he couldn’t hear.

“What’s going on…?” Mr. Krieg whispered to the air as he saw the girl walk through the wooden railings that separated the court room. She continued to point to him and as she got closer he started to back away until his back hit the wall.

The judge was talking to him asking if he was alright but as sweat built up upon his brow, Mr. Krieg could only shake his head as the girl continued to approach him until at last he could hear what she was saying.

“Murderer…” The voice was rough and cracked as if it hadn’t been used in a long time and the way she stared at him gave him the sensation of his skin crawling.

“No… No! You’re not dead!” At this point the gavel was being banged against the sounding block to try and gain some order but the defense was trying to clamour up some form of excuse for Mr. Krieg’s actions

“You tried to kill me…!” The young girl shrieked at him causing him to scream in fear, “You can’t deny that!”

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP YOU’RE NOT REAL, YOU’RE NOT DEAD!” He clutched at his head his finely manicured nails digging into his flesh as she started to float in front of him as he sunk against the wall.

“You still wanted me dead!”

“Of course I wanted you dead you stupid whore, if you had just minded your own business you’d have never even found out about the human trafficking and I wouldn’t have had to deal with you!” He slapped his hands over his mouth again and looked up at the girl as she faded from his sight.

More gasps came from the audience as the judge finally banged his gavel so hard that it snapped at the head. Wes on the other hand had to reach out and keep the mother from jumping up and running to attack the despicable creature that stood trial before her.

“Your honor, we request a Psychic Influence Test be performed on our client. His erratic behavior is far too sporadic to be natural.”

Wes felt the woman beside him flinch but he placed his other hand over her’s and whispered to her, “Don’t worry, it’ll be ok.”

“Motion granted. Bailiff, bring in the scanner and another gavel. As for everyone else be quiet I will not have any more outbursts!”

The device for the P.I.T. was brought out and Wes looked over at the nervous mother. If traces of psychic influence were found in the man then everything he said would be inadmissible and the jury would be told to disregard what he said. Psychics had done such tricks before over the years and this test had been devised to see if someone was being manipulated by a psychic. The only problems were that the influence only lasted for so long so some people who had been controlled by a psychic would register a negative if it was days after the event. That was why so many courts and police stations had P.I.T. devices these days to prevent innocent people from going to jail for being controlled and to keep guilty persons from saying that a psychic made them do it against their will.

The device was quickly wheeled out and after a few moments various wires were attached to Mr. Krieg’s head. The dressed up man was calming down now thinking that even if he had admitted to his crimes that whatever he saw was surely some kind of psychic influence which would wipe everything he said right under the rug.

What happened next though shocked him to his core. As the beeps and whirring of the machine went on, he looked at the defense attorney with a smug, if not slightly exhausted, look of satisfaction on his face. When it finally stopped the technician who had been working it looked over a screen and looked up to the judge.

“It’s Negative, your honor, the influence rating is well below anything a direct psychic ability would cause.”

With that being said the rest of the stage was set in Wes’s opinion. The judge ruled for the outbursts to be admitted into evidence and that his psychotic break would likely land him in some prison for the criminally insane. Regardless he was going away for a long time, and as he was dragged away kicking and screaming that he was made to do it and wanted the test to be taken again there was no way he would be found innocent and his outbursts would be enough that he’d never get an acquittal.

“Well that was fun,” Wes smiled behind his sunglasses as he walked out of the courthouse with the woman he had been sitting beside right behind him, “Please feel free to call upon me again if you ever want another repeat of today’s proceedings, Mrs. Harrisson.”

“My family and I appreciate all you’ve done for us, Mr. Barker, but what just happened in there? I was certain that when they pulled out the P.I.T. machine that they’d find out you had done something to _him_.” Mrs. Harrisson sneered as they walked out into the warm sunlight of the late August afternoon.

“Those tests do a scan of the mind as a whole and for most psychics they have to use the whole mind to get them done. It’s a terrible thing really, they lack subtlety and style. They have no appreciation for a good show or the patience to do so. Simply dreadful,” Wes chuckled as he looked back at her with a cocky grin, “I don’t have to do that though. All I have to do is take control of a few select areas and I can show them whatever I like. Heck I don’t even have to use the entire lobe to get things done. I barely need to access 10% of a person’s mind and I can cause them to hear, see, and even feel whatever I want them to. My style is much more subtle and I’ve refined my ability so that I don’t have to waste much effort on a person. A few simple nudges, mental suggestions, and a few neurons and it was easy to get him to confess to his crimes. To put it as simply as possible it’s a lot like hypnosis only without the swinging watch and a heck of a lot more effective.”

“If you say so; I don’t completely understand it but if it gets justice for my daughter I can’t say I truly care,” Mrs. Harrison stared at the young man before her. He looked small for his age and malnourished and his clothes looked worn down with stitches and patches all over the shirt and pants. He said that he had a home but the woman couldn’t help but feel that wasn’t completely true.

“That’s fine, ma’am, now…” he smiled at her in an almost devilish fashion as he looked at the basket she had been carrying, “About my payment…?”

She chuckled and handed the basket over which he opened and grinned at the contents, “The best cookies our shop is known for, homemade bread and muffins, fresh fruit and vegetable juice, and a few jams just like you asked for. Of course the 500 dollars is at the bottom of the basket too. Are you sure that’s all you want though it feels like you’re not getting a lot from this deal especially since you will be using some of that money to get back to where ever you live.”

“Its fine, ma’am, I can take a bus home, and I hope your daughter gets to feeling better soon” Wes smiled and waved her goodbye. It would take a few hours to get back to the city his family was staying at for now but it wouldn’t be so bad.

Once she was gone, Wes turned and started to head towards the bus station. It would be awhile before a bus heading for his city stopped by but he had nothing better to do at the time.

The day was sunny with few clouds in the sky and people were walking about focusing on their own lives and problems. Wes watched them as he walked along the sidewalks. He could hear every thought from everyone around him as if they were speaking it aloud. He heard of a woman’s excitement of being proposed to and her countless wedding ideas. The thoughts of a young man planning for his college classes sounded between a mix of terror and excitement to him. Even the wonderings of a little girl thinking about what she was going to have for dinner reached the mind of the young psychic and yet even despite all the noise that was in his mind he somehow found peace and quiet amongst it all. The thoughts were a white noise that he could tune out if he focused hard enough but could never keep from hearing.

It didn’t bother him though, after living with his power for over 16 years he was used to it. He could manage to think his own thoughts, and the ideas of others never bothered him too much. In the last several years the ability to hear the thoughts of those around him had actually kept him from being killed more times than he could count.

Once he reached the bus station he looked over all the departure and arrival times. It looked like he’d have several hours until the bus he needed to get on even arrived so that meant he had hours to find something to occupy his time. He went to one side of the station where they had numerous lockers for storing things temporarily and got out his back pack that he had put in there earlier while putting up the basket he had gotten.

His bag had all the basics he needed for his assignments: a burner phone for people to contact him, a couple small hand guns, throwing knives, grappling wire that was thin enough to be round up but strong enough to suspend a large man, a first aid kit, and his ever important ‘mask’ if he wanted to go about bashing heads as a vigilante while on assignment.

Truth-be-told it was just a black bandana that he tied around his head and had some holes cut out so he could see. On the back of it, though, was a small yellow circle that was surrounded by 10 thin diamond shapes that looked like a small sun but was the symbol for the marigold, his mother’s favorite flower. Even after all these years he still thought back to its meaning and how beautiful it was but pushed the thought aside for now.

He pulled out a few books and his music player for now and went to sit in an empty chair in the corner of the station. He’d read for awhile and listen to music while he waited. It often was relaxing to him to do many things at once and as he went from one book to another while listening to random genres he quickly found himself to be tuning out the rest of the world from his mind.

It was less than an hour later that a strange tickling in the back of his mind started to alert him to something going on. From behind his sunglasses he looked up and around and picked up the stray thoughts of various people wondering about there being so many men in suites walking around. After a quick glance about the station, Wes saw that there was indeed a lot of men in black suits, much more than was likely to be taking the bus.

The teen casually stood up and walked up to an attendant and handed his things to the man sitting there and pat his hand in a casual manner. Once he had touched the man’s skin he was given direct access to the man’s mind which allowed him a great number of possibilities.

“Hold onto this stuff for me, ok.” It was the only order Wes needed to give the man as he handed over his books and music player. He could make the man do anything he wanted so long as he was within a few feet of the man, but if these suits were there for the reason he thought then he needed to get out of there. With a blank nod from the attendant he took what was given to him and Wes started to walk out of the station.

When it came to controlling humans he had to be close to them if not touching them directly, but once Wes saw a group of pigeons he walked towards them. It had taken him years of practice to learn this kind of skill and he wasn’t sure if other psychics could do it, but extending his influence through the birds he caused the group to fly off and took control of five of them. Although it was a chore to do so he could use the birds to scout around and he could get a literal ‘bird’s eye view’ of the terrain around him, and he could see from one of the birds that a few men in those black suits had started to follow him.

‘So they’ve found me at last. About time after all the trouble I’ve been causing I was beginning to think he might be ignoring me,’ Wes huffed to himself and started to walk into a crowd of people. He was currently unarmed and with so many people around it was unlikely that they’d open fire on him and cause a scene. He was an evil man and would kill anyone who got in his way sure, but he couldn’t afford to kill everyone that got in his way and draw so much attention towards him.

Keeping in the crowds Wes moved along planning out his moves with his birds in the air. He made one fly down to land on a post to get a better look at them and from its eyes he saw the signs of a psychic band around his head. While not completely fool proof those small metal strips could be wrapped around a person’s head and block out most mind reading and psychic attacks. For Wes it meant he couldn’t hear their thoughts and couldn’t manipulate them like he had Mr. Krieg, but that didn’t mean he was helpless. He was well trained in hand-to-hand and he could likely take one or two of them on in a fight. The real problem, though, was that they likely had weapons and that put him at a disadvantage.

Using the birds he began to plot out a course of action. He couldn’t fight these men in the open like this but if he could find a deserted area and chase people away then he could at least let loose and not worry about anymore innocent people getting hurt because of him. After five minutes of walking from the station, he finally was able to spot an old ware house that would likely work to his advantage and he started to make his way there. By now it was obvious that these men were following him and as he casually climbed up and over the fence surrounding the old building he tried to look as casual as possible so it wouldn’t seem that he was onto them.

He looked around for a minute acting like he was making sure that no one saw him and ignored the guy that had quickly pulled back behind a corner. If he wasn’t in likely peril, Wes would have laughed at the man. He clearly was not cut out for stealth, but then again when people wore suits and dark glasses they tended to stick out in most situations besides back tie events.

‘Which reminds me if I’m going to take out that CEO who’s been dumping chemical waste into that river I’m going to need to pick up a suit next month.’ Wes sighed at the thought as he entered the building and quickly looked around to plan for the upcoming confrontation. He would have plenty of time to plan for his next assignment later, right now he had to figure out a way to use his surroundings to his advantage like his grandfather had taught him. Beams held up the ceilings every eight feet or so in one area and were more spread out further in. Where he entered was the entrance to what was likely a factory of some kind that had been cleared out years ago but had various piles of garbage and left over material still lying about. A few sleeping bags and cluttered areas told him that this place was likely used by some squatters for shelter but thankfully there was no one around. He looked around trying to find anything useful but found nothing that could make an effective weapon.

With little time to spare, Wes ran up the stairs to one side of the floor to what was once the office and looked around there. A broken swivel chair wouldn’t do him much good but the wires hanging from the ceiling would be helpful. The electricity to the building had likely cut off years ago, so he had no fear of pulling the wires out from the ceiling. They weren’t much but after using a piece of glass from a broken window he cut them and started to prepare. From what he could tell from the birds he still had control of outside the men were starting to gather around the building and it would only be a matter of time before they came in.

He could see four men coming up on his location and with little time left to spare and even less energy he dismissed the birds to their own devices and crawled up into the ceiling of the first floor. Once Wes was situated in a strategic location all he had to do was lie in wait for them to come in. If he waited for them to come in he could use the wire and to jump behind one and choke him unconscious and even if there would still be three more it was still better than four.  

It didn’t take much longer for him to hear doors open from his loft in the ceiling. He could hear footsteps carefully making their way in and as he quieted his breathing and listened he could start to hear them talk.

“We sure this is the target? He looked like he was barely 13.” Wes scoffed at hearing that, he’d be 17 in a few months after all. It wasn’t his fault that he was so thin and sickly looking. He only ate what he could scavenge from places and manage to steal after all and he barely ate anything at home so that his siblings would have more.

“He fit the profile and from the few pictures we have of him it looks pretty close. Just keep looking for him the file says he’s dangerous.”

“He’s just supposed to be a psychic, and you know how they are. They rely so much on their powers that when they come across people who are properly equipped to handle them that they don’t last five seconds.”

‘Oh… you, pal, are the first one I am going to punch in the face,’ Wes growled to himself mentally as he waited above their heads. He could see a little bit out from the holes in the ceiling but not enough to get an exact location on them all. After a bit of waiting though one of the men finally appeared below him and Wes couldn’t help but smile.

‘I feel like a spider,’ he cocked his head for a moment at that thought, ‘Except I have no desire to mate with a female that is five to ten times my size.’

Quickly and almost without a sound, the young teen dropped down from the ceiling with the wires he had collected ready to be used. He threw his fists over the man’s head and pulled back and down on them to dig into his throat. He made a few garbled noises that were a bit louder than he would have cared for but he quickly lost consciousness and was thrown to the side right as all hell broke loose, but not before he removed the metal device that blocked his powers.

The other three men were shouting as they rushed to the aide of their fallen comrade and Wes barely had enough time to duck into the old bathrooms. There were no windows in the bathroom but that didn’t matter to him, it was a small area and with the three of them it would be hard for them to fight efficiently which is just what he was hoping for. He ran into one of the stalls and propped himself up on the toilet and waited as the men rushed in. He could hear them walking around and knew that it was only a matter of time. He squatted on the water tank like a frog and put his left foot against the wall as he waited and when the door to the stall opened to reveal a Caucasian man with red buzzed hair, Wes pushed off at him landing a strong left hook against the side of his head which also had the benefit of removing the psychic blocking device at the same time.

With years of practice with his powers Wes was able to quickly take control of the man once the device was removed and he touched the man’s head. As he twisted himself in the air to land on a sink and then jump behind the man he had just pushed he took control of his body and made him run at the other two fists flailing around like a wild man. It wasn’t the most graceful of attacks he’d preformed but with such an insulting audience, Wes felt like he could live with being subpar.

“After all, you idiots are the ones who thought that you were safe just because you had those stupid little tin foil bands around your head.” Wes scoffed at them and smiled at the man he still had control over before he made him kneel before him so that he could spin around and kick him into the wall. The man would live like the others but he’d likely feel that for days after he woke up. Not that it would keep him up at night.

“Well now that that’s over with, let’s just see what all I can learn from you freaks.” Wes put his hand on the oldest looking man’s graying black head and started to dig through his memories. It was one thing to hear thoughts, but to actually read a person’s mind was a lot like going to a library for him. He had to look for specific memories and information and while it might not take a lot of time for him these days it was still fairly tedious and had the potential to be dangerous.

“So I can take a guess to who sent you after me and all but let’s see if you have some information on his location…” Wes looked around the man’s mind for several seconds not having much luck when he heard something from the ware house again. He quickly shoved the man to the side and put out his powers to detect any living beings around. He could sense the standard things around the area: rats, pigeons, a stray cat, but he wasn’t picking up anything distinctly human around him though that didn’t really mean much.

Wes scrounged around on the man he had punched in the head and pulled out a gun and took the safety off before he went to the door. He had used guns before and while he didn’t like them he knew this was a lot better weapon than some old wire and a piece of glass.

Hugging the wall the teenager slowly opened the door and peered out into the main area. After a careful scan of the surroundings he cautiously stepped out and held the gun up to his chest, ready to fire should he be threatened by something else. He kept to the wall as he made his way to the door again keeping all his senses tuned towards anything that might have been around. Once at the door he slowly pushed it open with his foot and checked around again. There was still nothing there and with nothing being sensed around him Wes finally lowered the gun he had taken and put the safety back on before tucking it into his belt.

“Guess that was all of them,” the shaggy teen looked back at the warehouse door and started to walk away, “Gotta get out of here though before-“

“Before someone gets the drop on you?” A female voice with an Indian accent spoke up from the wall and Wes barely had enough time to turn around to see the shimmering of a hologram disappear before a pair of taser wires was shot at his chest and delivered countless volts of electricity into his body. The pain of the shock quickly brought the young man to his knees and when it finally stopped he fell to his side panting hard from the screams that had been forced from his body. As he looked out he saw a pair of metal looking boots come up to his face as his vision started to blur.

“The target’s been acquired. We’re going to need transport though he’s taken out the other four and they might need medical attention as well. Copy that.” Wes panted as he heard the woman speak, he tried to think of a way out of this mess but he’d finally been caught and the last thing he could think about before his mind went blank was the satisfaction that his siblings would at least be safe now.


	2. Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MAR finds himself in a predicament, so what's a young psychic to do when faced with two powerful heroes who want to interrogate him on their home turf?  
> The answer: Run like hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This whole story hasn't been beta'd but I wanted to get it up in hopes of getting comments and critiques on it if possible. So forgive any glaring errors but I'm a pretty good typer so there shouldn't be too many problems with it.

Being unconscious was not pleasant. It was disorienting to be knocked out and then have no idea what was going on around you, cut off from all sensation and at the mercy of the world around you. As Wes finally started to come around he heard noises, voices, two males both older than him. Of course being captured he didn’t expect the voices to belong to some random crazy kids, but they were different than what he expected.

There was an edge to one voice and it was grumpy and annoyed but it sounded more along the lines of someone who expected to be in charge and lacked the military tone that he was expecting. It sounded more business toned instead.

The second voice he was hearing was much softer tenor, it was firm but still polite. He didn’t raise his voice and spoke gently but it carried with it a feeling of respect. This voice was a voice of reason who kept calm under whatever pressures were given him, while the other was one who forced his way into things and intimidated others and stubbornly held his ground without giving an inch.

A groan escaped him as he tried to open his eyes. Wes was starting to regain his senses and started to push his influence to the immediate area around him to get a sense of his surroundings. Sadly for him though all he could sense with his power was the two minds in the room with him that were blocked from his influence and their thoughts were blocked from being heard by him. With no one else in the room or nearby it was actually quieter than Wes had actually become accustomed to.

For most of his life he was around people and thus around the thoughts of others. While his powers allowed him to sense the two men in the room it wasn’t quite the same for him. The lack of thoughts washing around in his mind felt eerie to him. It was a type of quiet he wasn’t used to after all these years, and as Wes slowly blinked open his eyes he knew he’d have to resort to other tactics if he was to get out of this alive.

“I see our guest has finally woken up.” That voice that belonged to the calm man. When he was able to see again Wes found himself staring at a man in a blue hooded jacket that hung open around a black shirt on his chest but otherwise hugged his well developed shoulders and arms down to a pair of black gloves. On his face he wore another cowl that was pulled against the top half of his face, covering his eyes from view and likely served as a backup mask in case his hood ever got blown off. The lower half of the face revealed bronzed skin which seemed to signify a Hispanic heritage of some type to the teen.

“He’s not a guest, he’s a psychic and I still don’t see why we don’t just lock him up with others of his… type.” Next to the blue jacket sat an African American man who was seemed stronger built than the one next to him. He exhibited a feeling of pure power while he wore a deep red long sleeved tunic that hugged his body and had a golden trim around the neck. He wore a similar colored visor around his face to hide his eyes from view and also seemed to keep his shoulder length dreads held back as well. On his hands he wore fingerless gloves that were a dark orange color and had flame patterns covering them. Looking from one to the other for a moment, the teen had to curse his luck.

“Torrent and Pyrex…” Two of the strongest elemental type heroes in all of North America and they were sitting right in front of him. Wes quickly looked around and saw that they were sitting in a simple room, pale walls with a single camera in the corner focused on him the table the two were sitting at, the chairs they were sitting on and a single door behind him were all that made up the place, “You know, I’ve been expecting to have one of you heroes come after me one of these days, but I never thought it would be left to either of you to interrogate me let alone the both of you.”

Wes smiled coyly. He might not be able to use his powers against them thanks to the tech that was built into their masks but there were other methods of manipulation that he had learned over the years. He just had to keep calm, assert a dominance over the situation, and maintain control over the others. From what he knew of these two it would be hard to escape but if he could use Pyrex’s famous temper in his favor then he might have a chance of throwing him off his game. Then he could figure out a way to get out of the cable tie that was wrapped around his wrists and find a way out of wherever he was being held.

“I’d be quiet if I were you, brat. After all the trouble you’ve caused people and all the ruckus you’ve made you’re going to be lucky if we ever let you see the light of day again.”

‘So red’s the bad cop and blue is good,’ Wes yawned bored and looked at the dark man before him, ‘Let’s just mess with this guy a little bit and then get out of here.’

“Listen, tall, dark, and nappy, I really don’t know what you’re going on about but the only trouble I’ve caused is for bad people. I don’t know what you’re talking like that for, I just help put bad guys away same as you. Only I tend to leave people lacking the special third-degree-burns that you seem to like whipping onto people.”

That seemed to ruffle the pyromancer up a bit and Wes couldn’t help but grin more at him trying to get under his skin. He heard a ruffling and looked over to see that Torrent was bringing out a couple of files and opening them up so that Wes could see the insides. Each one had a picture of someone Wes had ‘manipulated’ in the past and most of them were still seeking out psychiatric treatment from what he heard last; even after all these years.

“Recognize these people, Psychic?” Pyrex spat out the word like it was an insult and the teen just glanced at the pictures on the table and shrugged.

“Yeah, a lot of bad guys there. Oh is that Mr. Fushiyaba?” A fist slammed down onto the table and a flame erupted from it as Pyrex glared with an uncontrolled fury waiting to be unleashed.

“Bad guy?! Mr. Fushiyaba was a good man who donated millions of dollars to relief efforts when Japan was struck with that tsunami 3 years ago. His company works in pioneering cancer research and genetics to help those stricken with Alzheimer’s among countless other diseases!”

“Oh? Didn’t know his company was into Alzheimer’s research as well,” He chuckled and tilted his head slightly seeing a vein start to stick out on the dark skin on Pyrex’s forehead, “How is he doing these days?”

Another fist slammed into the table and this one left scorch marks on it. The man was visibly angry now and the temperature in the room was starting to increase dramatically.

“He still is in psychiatric care and plays tea parties with dolls all day and goes nearly crazy whenever anyone mentions giving him a bath or shower. He has to be given a sponge bath while he’s distracted by a toy boat.”

“Really? Gee I’d have just left the bastard out on the street and let him die like a rat, but hey I tend to be pretty not caring towards such things.” He shrugged his shoulders and noticed the temperature increase again.

“What did you even do to him?! Why did you even do something to him, the man suffered enough when his wife ran out on him six years ago and-“ Wes interrupted with a bark of a laugh at that.

“She didn’t run out on him, he killed her.” That got the attention of both men who just stared at him in silence for a moment.

“There was no evidence of foul play in the case,” Torrent spoke softly, “How would you even-” This time it was Wes’s turn to interrupt with a scoff and a roll of his eyes.

“Uhh… Psychic, remember? Before I do anything like what I did to the guy I poke around in their minds for a little bit, find the information I need, and if the case turns out to be true I screw with their minds like my client wanted, and if not I report back to the guy that hired me. In this case I went to Mr. Fushi there, got inside his head, found out he strangled his wife, found out he was a freak in bed, and then drove him insane and gave him an intense water phobia because he threw her body into the ocean. It was actually pretty fun, I got to go to Japan for a few days and I got to see some cool temples.”

It looked for a minute after Wes finished talking that Pyrex was going to explode but Torrent placed his hand on his shoulder and he calmed down a bit, though he still remained tense. The Hispanic hero looked across the table and pointed to each of the people in the files.

“So… You’re saying that each of these people has done something bad and if I’m understanding this correctly you were hired to find out if they were guilty or not and then ‘punish’ them if they were?” Wes nodded, “That’s rather inhuman.”

“That’s ‘justice’ to most,” He shrugged, “Colonel Sullivan there beat a man at a bar to death for ‘looking at him funny’, James Rimland got away from a manslaughter charge, Herbert Bierce there cheated a man out of his entire life’s savings, and I could go on but the list is ugly and my performances were very well justified by the ones who wanted them harm.”

“We’re getting off subject here. We’ve brought you here to talk,” Torrent reached down and pulled out another folder though this one was much thinner than the others.

“Did you bring me here ‘just’ to talk? Cause I gotta say despite what I’ve heard about you and the hot head here I didn’t think you’d go for tying up a guy like this and especially someone who is technically considered a minor just to talk.”

He expected a huff, a glare, or a rude remark from Torrent, but instead he just chuckled and opened the file he held.

“The Master Manipulator, the Sadist Psychic, the Human Hacker; for someone who’s only been on the scene for, as near as we can find, two years you sure do have a lot of titles ‘MAR’ and you certainly have a flair for the dramatic if today’s ‘performance’ was any indication.”

“Well thank you, I do like to put on a bit of a show when I can. Best way to gain a reputation as someone you shouldn’t mess with.”

“Which brings us back to why we brought you here,” Torrent started up again but Pyrex just couldn’t keep his mouth shut or his temper in check.

“I still say letting him in here was a bad idea. We don’t know all what he can do and he could easily be working as a spy for the Citadel. I don’t care what his sources say, you can’t trust a psychic no matter what they say or do they’re all the same at the end of the day.”

“Rex, he has a point and if we can convince him to do this then it is in everyone’s best interest.”

“And if not? You know how this kind of power works. It drives a person mad to have that kind of power. Even those that are good eventually lose out to the madness and fall into the temptations. That’s just the kind of power that psychics have. We can’t trust him any more than we could any other psychic and he needs to be locked away before he falls and causes more damage than he’s already done.”

They argued back and forth with Wes getting few details from either of them as to what was going on. He could tell that they wanted him for something but he wasn’t so sure if it would be in his best interest to go through with it. He continued to glance about trying to get an idea of what to do when he found the temperature getting hotter again. Pyrex was losing his temper again and with no water in the room Torrent had little that he could do. Sure the hydrokinetic could pull the water from pipes and even use the water and liquids in their bodies as weapons, but Torrent had a reputation as being one of the best heroes because of low property damage and rarely used excessive force, preferring to finish a battle as quickly as possible by immobilizing his opponents.

“Listen, I really hate to break up the argument you two love birds are having but I’d really like it if you could just let me go,” Wes sighed dramatically and saw another vein start to throb on Pyrex’s forehead. It seemed to Wes that he had hit a soft spot and that was something he could work with.

“We are NOT lovebirds, psychic!” Again the dark skinned male spat out the word like it was a curse.

“Whatever you say, I just get this really thick vibe of sexual tension between you two right now. Not to mention what all those rumor blogs say and all the fan-girls write about you two.” Wes chuckled again, putting on a performance again and doing his best to get the reaction he wanted, “And it really does make a lot of sense really. I mean water tops fire all the time so that can also explain the ego and need to assert yourself to the community at large huh?”

“You little…” The look on the man’s face would normally be enough to tell someone to back off under normal circumstances. With the power to create and control flames a smart person would have kept quiet at this moment, but Wes was not a smart person. No, he was a clever person and was playing the man’s emotions like a fine tuned fiddle.

“Hey it’s fine to be like that these days. I mean considering the genetic freaks out there that look like animals I think being like that wouldn’t raise to many problems in the community.”

“I’m actually already in a relationship with Rook, but maybe you should stop that now,” Torrent looked a bit uneasy between the boy and the man but this was the last push that Wes needed.

“You’re already in a relationship with that guy?” The young man tsk-ed in disappointment and looked at Pyrex who looked about ready to explode, “And you’re having an affair with him…?” The sneer on the older male was harsh and Wes could see he only needed one more little button to push to start off the next scene.

“What would your _mother_ say about that?” The cocky smirk Wes gave was enough to finally push the older man past his breaking point and into attack mode. Before Torrent could even attempt to calm him down a loud roar of anger shot out of Pyrex’s mouth quickly followed by a large blast of flames coming from his right fist.

Wes saw it coming. He knew it was coming and this was what he wanted to happen. He kicked at the ground and fell back with the chair until it landed with a soft thud. The flames harmlessly passed over him and hit the door that was right behind him knocking it down and fracturing it into several pieces.

The young psychic smiled upside down at seeing the door blasted open and rolled onto his side before quickly pushing himself up and running out the now hole in the wall. He heard the shouts of Pyrex telling him to get back here and amongst the shouts he could even hear the wry chuckle of Torrent and Wes could actually imagine the look on his face as he ran down the hall ways.

Having no idea where he actually was he just ran along until he came to a stair way and charged down. He hoped he was in a tall building and that going down would take him to a ground floor and not some subterranean basement. Regardless of where it took him though he knew he had to keep moving and find someone he could hack.

“First thing though,” Wes growled as he nearly stumbled for the third time running down the stairs, “is to get these off of me.”

Taking a deep breath at the bottom of one flight of steps he reached behind his head and touched his neck. He had learned this trick, years ago and often times had to use it when he needed a burst of speed or strength to get through a situation. The human body had natural limiters on how much it could exert itself at a time, but during times of crisis, immediate survival became more important than long term damage and exhaustion. When he had learned about all the hormones and neural pathways he had also found a way to choose when to remove these limiters, flood his body with stress hormones like adrenalin, and increase his strength and speed by several folds for a short period of time.

Using the ability he took a deep breath and pulled apart the wire that was binding his hands together with relative ease. He then put his hand back on his neck to turn the limiters back on. It was useful to be able to perform such a skill but he knew that if he exerted himself to much that he could tear tendons, snap bones, and possibly kill himself. The human body, after all, was not meant to run at 100% even though it had the potential to do so.

The next problem was the incredible pain that came from pulling apart such a strong plastic. His bony wrists had welts on them now and were an angry red. Wes grasped his arms just above his wrists and turned off the pain receptors there before he started to run again. He was having to rely a lot on his powers now but at least it seemed he wasn’t being followed yet. It wasn’t a matter of ‘if’ he was going to be found, though, for the teen it was a matter of ‘when’ someone would find him. He had no doubt that Torrent would have likely informed the building that he was on the loose, while at the same time was keeping Pyrex from going off. He had rubbed the man with the exact purpose of blasting down the door and Torrent would more than likely keep him with him to minimize the damage the pyro would likely do in his fit of rage.

‘So that’s two big shots that are going to be on the sidelines, now just have to worry about who else I run into.’ Wes started to run scenarios of all the files he’d read about the heroes and what his likely options were with each one. If he could just find one person without one of those psychic blocking devices on then he figured his chances of getting out of here relatively unscathed went up by over 88% but if he couldn’t then it would only be a matter of time until he was caught again.

Running through a door on the stairwell after hearing another door shut from somewhere below him, Wes took a moment to try to regain his bearings. He reached out with his mind trying to find people, animals, or any signs of life at all around him but it was hard. The walls seemed to be lined with an electric current that seemed to block out psychic powers and it made it hard to find anything.

“Geeze with all the power that goes into something so sophisticated I wonder what their power bill is like in this building.” Wes spoke out loud as he looked behind him to be sure he wasn’t being followed before he peaked around the corner of the hallway he was on and gulped.

“It actually is not all that bad,” Came the voice of the Indian woman who Wes saw leaning casually against the wall. It took almost a nanosecond for Wes to remember that voice and match all he saw to know who this was.

An Indian female who was in her early 30s at most, 5’8” tall and wearing a brightly colored orange and yellow blouse that hugged her figure with a pink scarf around her neck. The Ajna chakra mark on her forehead and short black hair on her head that barely went below her ears that was kept back with a gold bandana further went to tell of the woman’s heritage, but the dead giveaway as to who this was came with the visible skin on her arms, part of her face, and the mechanical plating around her feet and legs.

This was the first bionic cyborg to be fully developed which blurred the boundaries between human and machine. This was Andrea Khanna also known as Andrea the Android and being in the presence of someone who was half machine instantly made Wes lose all kindness and curiosity and have it replaced with fury and contempt.

“You’re the freak that knocked me out weren’t you?” Wes did not like machines, he did not like AIs, and he absolutely hated automatons and robots.

“Well that is hardly a polite way to treat a lady, don’t you think?” She crossed her arms and Wes reached up to rub at his neck under the pretense of scratching his hair but actually getting ready to make a quick get away again.

“Yeah well when I meet a lady I’ll be sure to treat her better.” Another moment later she had her arm raised and shot out a pair of wires which would likely taze him again. Unfortunately for her he was able to push off against the wall he had been against and jumped into another wall. From there he jumped to the other wall to the ceiling and then left and right; hopping along like a wild frog as he was shot at with bolos, nets, and some kind of instant adhesive. It was hard but as he pushed his body beyond its limits and kept an eye out behind him for her attacks he was able to head to another stairwell. Wasting no more time he jumped up, using the rails to jump from one to another all while counting the time he had been using this technique carefully. Once he had climbed another three floors he bolted into another hallway and turned his limiters back on before he leaned against a wall to catch his breath.

He could feel small fractures forming in his bones and his muscles were burning from over exerting themselves but he knew he had to press on otherwise he was as good as dead. The heroes might not actually kill him, but if was put into a prison system he’d have a power blocking device installed on his body. Once he was powerless it would only be a matter of time before he was found and captured by worse people, and then it really would be game over for him.

Knowing what lay for him should he stop Wes pressed on after he caught his breath but kept alert for any sight, sound, smell, or even a change in temperature that might alert him to another attack or living being. He didn’t know what was going on, why he was here, or what the heroes wanted with him but if they called in a hero from India just to deal with him then it had to be serious.

‘I haven’t done anything that would cause an international incident… well recently. This whole thing is weird and I am going to be taking a break from assignments after I get home, maybe find a nice quiet desert to go visit so I can get some sleep again.’ Wes sighed at his thoughts as he rubbed his temples until he came across another stair case and went down it again, keeping vigilant as he went.

For a short time everything was quiet. Wes figured if anyone was chasing him that they were communicating with radio pieces and keeping the alarms off so he wouldn’t be aware of their plans. It was well after ten minutes since he had ran into or sensed anyone and it was starting to worry him. As he peered around another corner, though, he suddenly felt the presence of someone close by. He waited for a moment and saw a door open and a very large surprise walk out of it scratching his head.

The beast-like man stood over eight feet tall and was covered in grey fur from head to toe. He had razor sharp teeth that he showed as he yawned and as he stretched out his arms he saw even sharper looking claws. The face took on the appearance of a bob cat with a flattened nose, pointed ears, and tuffs of grey fur with a slight blue tint to it on his cheeks. On both sides of his face he had two jagged yellow stripes and he wore a sleeveless uniform that hugged his very large frame. It looked like he had just woken up from a nap, but what caught Wes’s attention the most was the lack of one of those psychic blocking headbands or anything around his head for that matter.

‘Better safe than sorry though,’ Wes thought, not wanting to engage this person if he couldn’t use his powers on him. He focused for a moment and put out his influence onto the beast man to start a new act. It was a standard illusion he had used several times before that took the form of a small girl dressed in a simple pink shirt and a pair of tan shorts. The young psychic made the girl appear at the end of the hall and had her walk up to the beast man. The illusion was made to look very innocent and cute with wide blue eyes and soft blond hair looking all of the image of a sweet angel that could do no wrong.

“E-excuse me, mister…” She spoke like she was afraid and looked up at him sniffling, “Can you tell me where I am?”

“Huh?” The imposing creature looked down confused at her before he kneeled down to look her in the eye better, “Well, sure. You’re in one of the World Hero League’s headquarters, this one here is in Sacramento, California, but what is a cute girl like you doing around here? Did you get lost from your mom or dad?”

‘Damn it!’ Wes grunted, ‘They brought me all the way here? How am I going to get home? I’m like 10 hours away from there now at best!’ Putting that aside for later, he started to slowly walk towards the hairy hero as he talked to the girl. He needed to get out of here, and if nothing else taking control over this large beast would be helpful in plowing down anyone that got in his way. He couldn’t move very fast while trying to maintain the illusion but it only took him a few moments before he got close enough to put his hand on the back of his furry neck and hijack his system.

After a quick scan of the beast’s mind he was surprised to find out that this was Cold Bolt the Lightning Wendigo and popular hero among the Canadian providences. What he was doing in the states was curious but unimportant at the moment. He was strong enough to lift cars and that meant that Wes now had a ride out of here. He climbed onto his back and wrapped his arms around his neck to keep control of his mind and body as he moved and then started to work the controls.

“Arms,” the large hairy limbs waved up and down, “Legs?” A few quick steps and a jump and Wes smiled.

“And now… let’s see he’s supposed to have elemental powers but how does…” A quick prod on one section of Cold Bolt’s mind and a blast of super concentrated cold air shot out of his hand and froze the floor under it. The sudden surprise caused Wes to flinch and poke another part of Cold Bolt’s brain which made him shoot out a bolt of lightning from his other hand leaving behind a small scorched area on the floor. Impressed by the actions he had discovered, Wes made a note of them and started to make the man run down the halls. He had been having too many close calls since he had started running and he wanted to get out of here as soon as he could now that he had a weapon he could use, despite it being a person.

In all honesty Wes knew it was only a matter of time before everything went south for him as he had been far to lucky at this point. Still though when he had Cold Bolt take him down three floors only to run into a half dozen agents he wished he could have been surprised. It had now been over 30 minutes since his escape and from what he could find in the beast man’s mind this was a normally vacant hallway that would make getting out of the building much faster. Seeing all the men standing there with various stun guns, he knew that he now had to really book it before a hero came after them that would likely be better equipped to handle this situation.

Holding on tight he made the beast run at full force through the gathered agents. What he hadn’t counted on was the top speed or force that he could put out, thus when he reached the end of the hall he crashed right through it bringing down pieces of sheet rock, wire, and insulation down upon the pair.

“Well, I ain’t paying for this so might as well make the best of it!” Wes held on tighter and charged Cold Bolt ahead, punching down each wall as they came to it as they gained speed through the rubble as each wall came crashing down. Alarms were starting to go off now and Wes could hear people running around through the halls and holes to try to get to him.

At long last though the final wall was knocked down and Wes came face to face with the open air again. He wasn’t as high up as he had thought but looking down from his perch he could see that he was at least fifteen stories high give or take. As he was looking around outside he started to hear people running up behind him. It wasn’t a shock to him seeing as he left a trail of destruction that would have been easy for a blind man to follow.

It took barely a moment but Wes ran several numbers in his head, trying to think up a plan and his chances of survival with each. He had Cold Bolt look back into the building as he looked out along landscape trying to find a way out of this. People had started to gather down below to what was going on and he was glad to see that the fallen debris hadn’t landed on or hurt anyone from the looks of it. Squinting down at the sidewalk he even saw what he could use as an escape now.

“This has gone on long enough!”

“UHG!” Wes groaned at hearing that robot’s voice again and glared over at her as she stood by with several men and women pointing their weapons at him, “Don’t you have a calculator to go save or something, motor head?”

“There’s no where left to run, get down from Cold Bolt and surrender yourself now and we can all get on with our lives,” Andrea seemed just as annoyed at dealing with Wes as he was with dealing with a machine. What she didn’t know however was that he already had an escape plan.

“Sorry, Silica, but I’ve got places to be and people to see; so sayonara, suckers!” Cold Bolt was made to jump out the hole in the wall and Wes heard shouts of panic as he fell through the air towards the ground. He twisted the body he was riding upon and aimed his hands down at the fire hydrant he was falling towards. With a blast of lighting hitting it, water exploded up into the air and just as quickly the other hand shot out a blast of cold that froze the column of water solid. It wasn’t graceful but it was high enough that Wes was able to make the beast grab hold of it and slide down enough so that their landing wasn’t enough to break his legs.

Once on the ground he looked up to see the hole in the building and the proceeded to have Cold Bolt run off as fast as he could. Wes had to hold on tight but it wasn’t as if it was impossible. He had him running well over 90 miles per hour and jumping about over cars, streets, and buildings. It didn’t matter to the teenager what happened or where they were going just so long as they could get away. The beast ran for over an hour, out of the city limits and then past forests and fields as he headed North, stopping every so often to get a fix on his surroundings before moving on again.

Finally after 2 hours of running at his top speed, Wes got off his back and sent him on his way. He had put a special post hypnotic suggestion into his mind that would keep him running for half an hour before moving on until he reached the Canadian border. Wes had managed to get well over 500 miles away from Sacramento and felt that he’ be safe enough to try and get a ride back to his siblings’ apartment. Maybe later in the week he could go back to the bus station and get the money from his job today but it was unlikely that the food would still be good by then.

With a heavy sigh Wes started to walk along the road he was on, moving slowly towards a town that would hopefully have a bus or something so he could get back on track to where he wanted to go. He was tired, he was sore, and his wrists were starting to hurt him again. It had been a long day and he really wished he could just fall over and sleep, but that was also a problem that he didn’t want to cause. So the young psychic just kept on walking for another half hour before the town came into view.

Wasn’t much of a town, Wes didn’t know exactly where he was and if he was being truthful with himself he didn’t care. What had started out as a simple assignment had turned into another grueling day of him fighting for his freedom and life. As he walked along the sidewalks he still managed to keep on alert for anything suspicious. Besides the thoughts of this scrawny kid that walked into town that is.

Wes figured he must have been quite the sight. A bone thing shaggy haired kid that was covered in dust and looked like he had been strapped to the top of a car going down the interstate. Figuring it best to avoid the populace the teen kept the alleys and found them to be surprisingly cleaner than most cities’ were. Feeling a pang of hunger Wes sighed and felt around for his wallet but remembered that it was in that locker.

‘Looks like I’m doing urban survival again,’ Wes sighed as he went behind a restaurant and started to dig through the garbage a bit. It was really a shame what people half threw away but their loss was his gain. Sure with his powers he could easily steal food or money to pay for an actual meal, but these people had done him no wrong and besides he was used to this even at home. It was his fault that his family was in the situation that they were in as far as he was concerned no matter what his older siblings said, and he never took food from them. This left him to eating the bare minimum to survive while at home or scrounging up something to eat elsewhere. It was just another reason he asked for food as payment in some of his assignments.

After searching through for a bit he came across a half eaten T-bone steak that was actually still warm and looked to be in good shape and took a few tentative bites from the remaining meat. He supposed he could have gone hunting for a bird or squirrel to eat but he didn’t have any tools and needed food now. Using his powers as much as he had today had burned a lot of calories and his body screamed at him to refuel. It was a pain to have to eat so often when he had so little options to but it was his life and he was used to it.

Scrounging around some more Wes managed to find a bit of decent food that would tide him over for awhile before he got out and started to make his way to the bus station. He’d have to use his powers to get on the bus but he’d send them money for the fare later. He might not a hero but he was an honest person and wanted to make his parents proud by not being someone who stole things when he didn’t need to.

Once he was inside the small town’s bus station he looked over the schedule and sighed. He would have to wait for three hours until he could get on a bus heading in the right direction. It seemed as if his day was just going straight off a cliff and he desperately wanted to sleep, but knew he couldn’t.

Sitting down in a chair out of the way, Wes decided that if nothing else he could meditate and practice his powers some. He knew he likely smelled of dust and rotten garbage at this point and would need a shower when he got back but that was the challenge this time. He extended his power over the entire room and connected with everyone that came and went so that they couldn’t smell him. It was for some reason harder to manipulate what people smelled and tasted for Wes, but he chalked it up to humans not relying on those senses as much as sight and sound. It was an interesting trick to be able to manipulate the senses of others and had a great deal of potential in its uses, but for now it’s only use was as a distraction to keep him awake and focused.

“You know you’re a very hard young man to track down.” A sudden voice spoke to Wes and he jerked his eyes open in surprise. He would have sensed someone walking up to him unless, he looked up to the man wearing a white suite and a well worn Stetson hat that looked old but well maintained. What made Wes tense up though was the red double diamond mask the man wore under the brim of the hat which covered his eyes and the slight metallic looking band that was just barely visible under the hat.

“And apparently my luck ran out with the Lucky Devil of Las Vegas himself,” Wes glared at him in sheer annoyance, “Hello, Ace, I guess you win the bet for catching me huh?”

“I guess you could say that, kid, but come on,” The older man jerked his head and Wes reluctantly followed. He didn’t have the energy or resources to escape at this point, he had lost but maybe he could plead his case and at least get some help for his siblings. They were heroes after all surely they’d help out kids if he asked.

“Gotta say, kid, you should have been giving us a run for our money today. Caused a heck of a scene at the base in California and all, but don’t fret none on that it wasn’t to extensive and I gotta say it was funny what ya did there.” The older man chuckled and Wes had to really look at him. The man was likely in his 30s but it was hard to tell with his hat drawn down and so little of his tanned face actually showing.

Wes remained silent as he was lead outside and down the side of the station. They walked along with only the sounds of Ace whistling as they went leaving time for the psychic to recall all he knew about the man.

He knew the man had no actual powers but if the size of his body was to indicate anything he was still quite strong. He used cards and various gadgets surrounding the four suits to fight off the gangs and mafia style families that corrupted Las Vegas and made it such a pit for normal people. He was a good and cheerful man from what most reports told about him but the thugs that he managed to catch normally sported more than a few sprains and bruises. He wasn’t one to hold back much from what he knew of his more famous escapades, and in a straight fight Wes doubted he could win so he kept looking around trying to figure yet another way out of this situation that he had gotten himself into.

“You’re not in any actual trouble you know,” Wes flinched and looked ahead at the man as he looked back with a kind smirk, “We ain’t here to catch you and lock you away. In fact we came here to offer you a bit of a deal.”

“Who’s ‘we’?” Looking around at the park they had walked into Wes spotted yet another hero dressed in a brown trench coat and fedora with a dog headed insignia on his black shirt that was neatly tucked into a pair of tan pants. His mask covered his face completely in the shape of a dog and it suddenly clicked how they were able to find him here.

“Bloodhound, the Master Tracker,” A loud groan escaped the teen’s lips as he plopped himself down on the grass that they had walked onto, “Is EVERY hero in North America after me today or did I just hit the jackpot and get some of the larger heavy hitters?”

“Actually we only asked Andrea here to help catch you and then Torrent volunteered to ask you some questions, but then Pyrex wanted to join in because he thought Torrent would be too soft, and Cold Bolt was here for an assignment and when you used him to run away we had to call in some help. Honestly we didn’t expect any of this today but Hound here enjoyed the challenge of trying to find you, didn’t you BH?” The man just nodded his head and Ace smirked at that, “Sorry, he ain’t much of a talker. But let’s get down to business shall we?”  
“Yeah, you said something about a deal?” Wes sighed already knowing what to expect, there were only so many reasons that they’d offer him any kind of deal, “Let me guess in exchange for a pardon for my ‘crimes’ I have to help you with something, right? Well let’s hear it, what do you want me to do? Torture for info, track someone, find someone, deal with some psycho criminal and reprogram their mind so they’re harmless…?” he shrugged and offered as a final joking thought, “Put on a show for some bored diplomats and guard them?”

A light chuckle came from the man dressed in white and he shook his head, “Actually, we want you to join up and be part of the League. Well one day that is when you turn 18 and maybe in the meantime help us out with assignments, tracking down bad guys, and really putting your powers to good use.”

Wes blinked up at the masked men for several moments as what had just been offered him tried to find a place to make sense in his mind. It was an unheard of opportunity to be sure, there had never been a psychic offered a place in the World Hero League but for the matter at hand the teenager had only one thing to say.

“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MINDS?!” He yelled and threw his hands out in a bold and wild gesture, “You chase me down all over a city, I have to fight off several armed men just to get caught by a robot-”

“She’s an Android actually,” Ace interrupted and Wes waved it off.

“Her mind is mostly machine and I hate that but don’t interrupt,” He sighed and rubbed at his face, “Then I have to seriously piss off a pyro-kinetic to escape, dodge that chip chick, sneak around a base avoiding the 42 cameras you have on each hall, and yes I did know you had at LEAST that many on each one, then I had to hack the hulking howler and then bash the building until I could find freedom from firing a flash and frost!” Wes fell back in exhaustion as he finished and looked up at the sky. The sun was starting to set and the sky was starting to change colors.

“That was a lot of alliteration…”

“Ehh I talk like that sometimes when I get stressed or annoyed, I can’t help it, but that’s beside the point.” He jerked back up and pointed at Ace, “How can I even trust you guys? You want me to work for you or something and yet I can tell you’re holding back on the details. What is it you’re really wanting from me and give me one good reason I should trust you.”

“You don’t think you can trust us?” It was hard to see from the mask and hat but Wes could almost make out a brow being raised in curiosity from that statement.

“I don’t trust anyone whose thoughts I can’t hear. It means they’re hiding something, have a lot of mental control which could make them a threat to me, aren’t really alive like the android, or something else. No matter what, though, if I can’t hear someone’s thoughts it’s normally a bad sign.”

“Well then, let’s change that shall we?” Ace smiled again and took off his hat and then removed the band that encircled his dusty dark hair that was graying at the temples.

“What… You… You’re going to let me hear your thoughts?” Wes stared at him in wide eyed amazement.

“And read my mind if you so desire. I figure that’s the best way to show that I trust you, right?” He held out his hand in a friendly gesture and Wes tried to pick up some sign of a trap from his now exposed mind.

“How do I know this isn’t a trick, or how do you know I won’t take control of you and escape?”

“I’ve read a lot about you, Mr. Barker,” Ace continued to smile in that warm fatherly manner that pulled at an old wound deep inside Wes’s heart, “And I know you’re a good person and a kind young man. All I’m asking is that you trust me like I’m trusting you, because I know you’re a good person and I have every confidence that you can become a great hero.”

“I… I’m no hero, sir… but…” Wes reached out and grabbed the hand that was offered to him and pulled himself up. He then looked at the man standing before him and reached to touch his head. He could have gained access to his mind from any nerve point on his body but it was easier and faster to touch the head or neck.

He opened up the mind like he would the door to a library and was suddenly inside the man’s mind. Images and words floated around him in a great expanse of light and Wes looked around at them all. He could see the thoughts and memories the man often recalled large and bright and noticeable memories from the recent past. He looked at the memories of them talking and moved them aside to look deeper into his mind. He saw memories of drinking coffee that morning, of waking up in a nice looking bedroom with a great deal of sunlight, a night where he was saving a woman from a group of gang bangers and helped the police take down a drug cartel. Wes sorted through dozens of memories searching and proding for the right memories until he finally came across a memory of him looking at a file with his name and alias written on it.

*****

“So this is the psychic child that’s been mentioned all over the states, lately?” Ace flipped through the small file that they had on Wes and frowned at it, “He doesn’t seem like he’s doing anything particularly bad. Though it is a bit extreme… Several of the drug lords he took down in the south seem to suffer from Cotard Delusion now, but I can’t say I really care. This brand of drug had some horrible side effects on it and having these men off the street will weaken the drug rings for several years until the hole from the power gap is filled again.”

“The matter isn’t so much of what he has done it is more along the lines that we are concerned about what he could be planning,” Ace looked up from the file and saw Torrent looking down at him.

“You think he could be trying to gain favor with the Citadel?”

“That is what Pyrex thinks, take that as you will, but others are not far from thinking the same thing.”

“I’m not convinced though, according to this he has six siblings: one older brother, one older sister, three younger sisters, and the youngest brother, and they seem to be on the run from what limited data we have on them. Do we know their location now?”

“No, but we do know that he sometimes goes after high profile people who are suspected of various wrong doings. Illegal dumping, black market deals, human trafficking, and then the more normal crimes like rape, embezzling, cutting corners in corporate contracts, and so on; he seems to go after these people during public events and makes a big show of everything, but there’s really no pattern to it and they’re all over the place.”

“So we just need to cast our net into things like big court cases with high powered people. Once we find him we can deal with the next issue.”

“Pardon?”

“Inviting this psychic to be the first one among our ranks, Torrent. We’ll confront him, make him an offer to join the academy and with any luck in a few years we’ll have a very useful ally in our fight against the Citadel as well as the other crazy villains we have to deal with.”

“You’re serious?” The shocked expression on his face was one of disbelief, “How can you be so sure that you can trust him to go there? You haven’t even met him yet.”

“These kids are running from something and yet he goes about risking exposure for some reason and yet they are all over the place over several periods of time. He’s trying to do good and likely lure someone out, and if nothing else the fact that they are all staying together shows a family cohesion that I can applaud. He seems like his heart is in the right place,” Ace closed the file and leaned his face onto his clasped hands, “I think he’ll be a good person and make an excellent hero, but when the time comes I think it best if I talk to him if possible.”

*****

Wes didn’t need to see anymore than that. He pulled back from the memory and pulled back from his mind until he was back and pulled back his hand to look at the pair of heroes before him. He thought more about what he had just seen and sighed as he locked his gaze with Ace again.

“Okay… So you’ve got my attention now,” Wes crossed his arms and looked at them seriously, “So let’s go over terms and conditions here. What exactly do you want and what do I get out of this whole situation besides the fact you guys don’t chase after me?”

“As you are under the age of 18 and thereby not a legal adult in the United States, you are to enroll into the academy we have for young people who either have powers or wish to fight crime one day. You will be expected to attend classes, participate in missions where help is needed though nothing too dangerous, and upon graduating you will be inducted into the Legion as a full member where you will help out other heroes across the world, serve a selected area if you so desire or go around ‘freelancing’ as some call it, and generally be on call to help in the more high profile situations: defending diplomats, rescuing presidents, fighting off the A-list villains, and so on and so forth. You also get good health care benefits and if you want to do the hero thing full time you will receive a stipend for your work much like a police officer would. Pay increases and decreases with how well or poorly you perform and all that but that’s for later.”

“Yeah… I already earned a GED equivalent when I was like 10,” Wes crossed his arms with an unimpressed look on his face, “Do I really need to attend this school?”

“Sadly, yes, but on the plus side if you enroll your siblings will also be allowed to attend.” A furious look came across Wes’s face at hearing that and Ace quickly held up his hands to placate him, “No, I’m sorry you don’t know everything. You see the academy also works as a safe house for the children of other heroes. It functions like a regular school and the children are free to choose if they want to follow and train to be heroes one day. We only require those with powers to have special training classes so they can properly control them, otherwise the choice is all up to them. Your siblings won’t be put into any situation they or your older siblings don’t want.”

“My older brother and sister would not want the others to do what I do. They don’t even like what I do but they understand my need to do so. Thank you though I’m glad they won’t be forced to become soldiers like I was.”

A look of sympathy and confusion passed over the other’s face for a moment before he nodded and turned away, “This is a lot to take in and I’m sure you’ve had a very long day. How about we get you back to your city and you can talk things over with your family and see what they think about all of this?”

“I’d like to, but I still have to get my stuff from the bus station I was chased from,” He growled annoyed again, “I mean really! If you just wanted to talk and all you could have just sat down without one of these stupid steel straps around your head. Do you know what I had to give up to get away from you freaks? Fresh muffins! And not just any muffins the woman raises her own greenhouse and has kiwis and Açaí berries all fresh and ready to be used!”

“Don’t worry,” Bloodhound held up the same basket that Wes had stored in the locker along with all his other things causing the teen to smile in relief, “BH here was able to find your stuff and we brought it with us. As for why we did this like we did. Well to be honest it was actually part of a test to see just how capable you really were.”

The man started to walk away motioning for Wes and Bloodhound to follow as he continued to talk, “I mean you are the first psychic who is mostly sane and is capable of more than we even know. We wanted to see just what all you were capable of and see if you had more than just psychic powers to mess with people or if you had actual fighting experience that would be useful should you come across people who are blocking out your ability or even mechanical people similar to Andrea or just robots.”

“Don’t… mention robots…” Wes cringed at the memory that tried to force its way to the foreground of his mind before he managed to push it back, “But ok I guess I can see the benefits for you guys doing that then.”

He smirked and handed him back his hat as they got to a simple but roomy silver car that looked like it came straight from a showroom, “Just don’t do anything like that to me again. Alright, cowboy?”

That caused the man clad in white to look back with his mouth slightly aghast, “How did you…?”

“That memory is majorly meaningful in your mind, mister.” Wes smirked, “I can see you’re a good man too now, and he’d be proud of you.”

Ace smiled a bit and tipped his hat to the teen in thanks before they all climbed into the car. It wasn’t too fancy or flashy but still was really nice and Wes felt bad about street trash like him being in something as nice as this. He desperately also wanted to eat something but also didn’t want to get crumbs on the seats.

“You’re not the type to take much charity are you?” Wes looked up at the rear view mirror where Ace’s eyes looked back at him and he shook his head.

“I prefer to work for things. I’m already a huge burden on my family I don’t need to be a burden to others.”

“Hmm, well then feel free to eat what you got there, don’t want you passing out from hunger.”  
Wes nodded and sorted through the basket and started to eat a muffin taking great care to not make a mess. The ride was quiet and as the sun continued to set the young psychic pulled out an auto-injector from his book bag and jammed it into his thigh. He made sure to keep quiet as the chemicals flooded his system, and it didn’t seem like they had noticed it either. The medicine would keep him awake for another eight hours and as he slipped the empty container into a side pocket he started to go over everything that had happened today before he put the last bite of his muffin in his mouth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This world is full of interesting characters, people, monsters, powers, abilities, and stories. This will focus solely on Wes though so don't expect to see some of these characters again for a long time if ever.

**Author's Note:**

> Mostly unedited and a work in progress, but I wanted people to read this and maybe offer ideas and thoughts on the character and story. I'm trying to build a world where there are heroes of all shapes, sizes, genders, creeds and colors and MAR is just the start of it all. Ideas and comments are alway


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